My tweet on Gujarat model for Saharanpur riots was not communal, BJP MLA

Defending his "controversial" tweet advocating "Gujarat model" to stem the Saharanpur riots, BJP MLA and party National Executive Member CT Ravi today said his intention was not to inflame communal passions but to help Uttar Pradesh Government control communal violence. "My intention was not to inflame communal passions, but to make a point that the Gujarat model would help Uttar Pradesh Government in controlling communal violence," he told reporters over a brewing controversy on his tweet on Sunday.

"Since 2002, not a single (communal) incident took place in Gujarat as the government there has taken serious action (to control it). That was my intention behind the tweet," he said.

Ravi had tweeted yesterday, "Only the Gujarat model, that worked from 2002 in containing their rioting elements, can work. Apply across Bharat."

Also the state BJP General Secretary, Ravi clarified that the then Gujarat Government (headed by Narendra Modi) had taken some preventive measures to control the communal violence by arresting more than 20,000 people. The government had also clamped curfew and issued shoot-at-sight orders, Ravi said. "Such steps... Uttar Pradesh government should have taken to curb communal violence."

Responding to Delhi-based lawyer and activist Shehzad Poonawalla petitioning the National Human Rights Commission on the alleged "inflammatory" tweets, he said, "If I am summoned, I will answer the questions and clear my stand."

Poonawalla has petitioned NHRC, alleging that BJP leaders were using the social media to inflame passions. Ravi said there was nothing objectionable in his comment and "some persons see yellow with their jaundiced eyes." The violence at Sultanpur in western Uttar Pradesh has left three persons dead and 33 others injured so far with shoot-at-sight orders in place after riots flared up over a land dispute between two communities.